It looks like everyone is loading buses and heading to the North Country this weekend.
Holy Family at Moose Lake
Moose Lake got a hat trick from senior D Abby Painovich and 2 goals from junior F Lexi Bonneville last week in their 6-5 win over North Shore.
But Holy Family has Alex Pellicci and she’s pretty good. Harvard likes her. 8th grader Taylor Koeppl leads the team with 2 goals and I expect Lauren Hickey to get in on the action tonight.
Holy Family 4. Moose Lake 1.
Dodge County at Cloquet-Esko-Carlton
Dodge County opens the season tonight by taking a 200 mile bus ride literally straight north to CEC. The two towns might have the same longitude. DC had a nice season last year with 15 regular season wins including a 3-2 victory over CEC. They are led by senior foward Olivia Smallbrook.
CEC is coming off a REALLY nice win to start their season over Brainerd/Little Falls. Senior goalie Elise Lund was outstanding making 37 saves on 39 shots which allowed her team to win 3-2.
This is a tough one. Who is better tonight? Smallbrook or Lund? Shoot……ummm…..this is really hard! Let’s go with Smallbrook.
Dodge County 3. CEC 1.
North St. Paul/Tartan at Grand Rapids/Greenway
NSP/T has been busy! 3 games under their belts already. They have a win over Jefferson and losses against Holy Angels and Burnville. GRG has legit talent in Sadie Peart and Claire Vekich.
GRG 5. NSP/T 1.
Irondale at Hibbing/Chisholm
Allie Bussey of H-town is really good. She will be too much for Irondale to slow down.
Allie 4. Irondale 0
Roseville at Proctor/Hermantown
Proctor/Hermantown has some really nice returning players in defensemen Ella Anick and Braelyn Sathers and last year’s leading scorer senior Dehli Heikes. Sathers is underrated because she doesn’t get involved in the offense. She a big, mobile stay-at-home defenseman. They have an incoming group of youngsters that was the runner-up to Edina Green in the 15A State Championship last year. That group had a record of 432-2-2 or something like that. 2 of their losses and 1 tie came at the hands of Edina Green who had a perfect record last year, by the way.
The only way Roseville has a shot is if Lee Stecklein and Winny Brown suit up.
Proctor/Hermantown 6. Roseville 2.
Minnetonka at Roseau
How does Minnetonka respond to the heart breaker of a loss to Forest Lake to start the season?
Tonka had a lot of shots in the first game of the year. 35 to be exact despite playing 12 minutes of the game a skater down. They need to possess the puck down low to free up their D and get to the net for some second chances against Roseau’s goalie.
Roseau has some great talent in Kayla Santl/Bemidji, Anika Stoskopf/Bemidji, and senior goalie Kiana Flag. But Tonka’s stellar D figures out how to slow down the play making abilties of Stoskopf which will limit the opportunities for Santl to finish.
Tonka 4. Roseau 2.
BSM at Duluth
BSM is coming off a game in which they played the defending Class A Champs pretty evenly on the ice. The final score would indicate otherwise but that is misleading. I am hearing BSM goalie Greene might be injured so her status is up in the air. I don’t think that affects the outcome at all.
BSM 4. Duluth 1.
Lakeville North at Warroad
With Lakeville North losing Maggie Flaherty to graduation they are going to have a hard time scoring goals as evidenced in last week’s 1-0 loss to Shakopee. Warroad, on the other hand, does not have a hard time scoring goals as evidenced by their 6.28 goals per game average last year. The Class A runner up last year lost Madison Oelkers and her 64 regular season points to graduation. But they back filled with incoming talented sophomore Sydney Phaneuf who moved over this year from Virginia, I believe. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
The only way Lakeville North stays in this one is if they take away the middle of the ice and plug up the front of the net. It won’t be pretty hockey but it could be effective hockey.
Warroad 5. Lakeville North 1.
Sota Girls Hockey 